Diagnosis of the Use of Agricultural Machinery by Mechanization-Service Providers

Abstract

Farmers in Catamayo Canton, Loja Province, who do not have agricultural machinery for soil preparation, hire mechanization services locally. The general objective of this research was to diagnose the use of agricultural machinery by mechanization-service providers in the parishes of San Pedro de la Bendita, Catamayo and El Tambo, through interviews and surveys of 9 mechanization-service providers and 12 farmers. The research was field-based, cross-sectional and descriptive. The mechanization-service providers are small farmers who maintain their tractors and implements personally and consider that the use of machinery is due to the predominant soil texture in the canton. The mechanization indexes determined indicate the existence of a very diverse crop pattern and soil aeration is necessary for better yields: clay texture and the presence of stone is predominant in the area. The most used implements in the soil preparation are disk plow, furrower and harrow and tractors have an average power of 95 hp, of varied brand and year of manufacture 1987-2019. The group of mechanization-service providers served 610 producers corresponding to an equal number of production units in 2019 with a range of 20-500 ha. There is a ratio of 142.09 ha/tractor, as well as seven tractors/100 ha, the area harvested with machinery is 0% and the power used per area is 0.42 kW/ha.